A Growing Family
by Okoriwadsworth
Summary: Team Flash and Team Arrow get new friends, welcome a new team member, and have a fun time.


A Growing Family.

(Author's Note: If you're wondering, this took place on Earth-1. Superman and Supergirl live here now, because I'm trying not to kill Oliver with the Multiverse theory yet. So, this happened directly after World's Finest. Barry mentioned the concept to Kara, who agreed and brought Clark along.)

Oliver Queen cooks. It's partly because when you spend enough time on an inhospitable desert island loaded with bad guys who want nothing more than to kill you, making sure no one poisoned anything is just best practices to stay alive another day. But, after returning from Lian Yu, he found that it helped remind him he was a person, and not just a monster who existed to deliver justice and hurt people.

And like most things he did on the island, Laurel Lance was the beneficiary of that knowledge. Since they got back together, many a weekend was spent shopping in local butcher shops, the Asian markets that dot the edges of the Glades, and small fruit and vegetable stands. If you asked her in a private moment, when he wasn't around, Laurel would freely admit that she knew Oliver cooked for her as a coping mechanism. But when she compared it to the heavy drinking she fell into after Tommy died, the comparison didn't seem that much of a problem. She knew why he was doing it, and didn't mind being pampered that way.

And so he vowed, every morning before she woke up, that he would always be the man she needed him to be, and the partner in field work she deserved. Saying that benediction out loud gave him a purpose, a thing to do, so he felt more fulfilled as she got both stronger, and more adept at every aspect of heroism.

That was what his days not patrolling the city provided him, the chance to see where he was in his vow and where he needed to improve. He took them as holy things.

And if the rest of his family, including Team Flash in Central City, took those days as a chance to eat good food, workshop the villains they were struggling with, and get martial and tactical support, he supposed there could be worse fates he was tasked with suffering.

_**A few hours later….**_

Laurel Lance looked at the perfectly calibrated scale to the left of her and the multiple loaded barbells to the right in the massive home gym that had been set up in the Queen mansion, and had a brief moment of contemplation while finishing her breakfast of a three-egg Western omelet.

Even now, months after giving up drinking and getting in physical shape beyond what she could have imagined herself capable of, memories of that gaunt and physically weak woman she once was still cross her mind. At her worst, she knew she was taller than the average height of a woman, and tried to carry herself with a regal elegance as a result of that fact. But it was hollow and thin, the kind of elegance one carries when they don't want you to know there's anything serious behind the veneer.

Now, though? Now she felt different. She felt not just like the woman she had been before Lian Yu, but like a new woman altogether. Determined, strong, and capable in a way she didn't think she could have been in doing this alone. She had found a purpose, something that made her feel joy and warmth.

And, she admitted happily to herself, she really did like the way she looked. Gone was the thin dark-brown hair and a body under-nourished but over-lubricated on wine and martinis. In its place? Luxurious dark-brown hair that wouldn't have been out of place on a shampoo commercial, and the kind of strength and lean muscle that made her contemplate if her suit didn't need to be brought in again.

She knew, from her "normal friends", that they all took turns worrying if Laurel was getting "bulky". For reasons that defied her understanding of the world, people still expected people interested in fitness to be lean and almost willowy. She didn't want that. She lifted heavy, and so it didn't bother her that much if she weighed a few more pounds than everyone else and ended up having her clothes tailored.

As she thought about that, and wondered idly if it was time to have her suit re-tailored, Oliver Queen came out of the shower and wrapped his hands around her waist and smiled at the absolute love of his life.

"So what are your plans today, my love?" smiled Oliver, turning to grab a few of his  
practice quivers as well as a couple of newly purchased bows that he was very interested in testing out.

"Amicus briefs, and then… Family Day. You?" stated Laurel confidently and happily, having no problem with the concept of spending another day with all of the friends she had made, and helped support as they had been so kind to support her.

"We've got new guests today. Would you believe Superman and Supergirl are coming? I've got to go food shopping. Apparently, from what Barry's been telling me, he has a match for eating prowess in Supergirl" said a shocked Oliver, idly rubbing the edge of his black American Express card in fear of just how much cash he's going to outlay for this feast.

"You'll be fine, Ollie. I mean, Cisco's bringing them over in a breach. Central City has like 5 or 6 Costco's in a three-block radius of STAR Labs, so I think they're prepped" says Laurel, noticing he's not nearly as worried about the presence of aliens as he is about the very real idea that he has to feed aliens.

Sighing, he heads into the bathroom and gets dressed before grabbing his duffel bag filled with his practice bows and a few quivers worth of arrows, having shown a clear interest in a few new compound models he saw online. His day was about to begin. Good thing too. He had plans.

_**Meanwhile, in the bunker….**_

No one who knew Superman or Supergirl, either in their civilian identities or out, would ever consider them to be anything other than unassailably polite. As much as they were proud of anything, it would be that.

So, because they were trying very hard to be good neighbors and guests, they showed up early to the bunker and found themselves confronted with Nyssa Al-Ghul and Roy Harper, each with arrows drawn and ready to fire center-mass.

This was a Mexican standoff, and chances are arrows were going to fly and there was going to be a wild brawl. But at that exactly that moment, a breach opened and Cisco Ramon walked in, alongside Caitlin Snow and Barry Allen, and the moment passed.

"I know what Oliver feels like. Never thought I'd say that out loud, but I do now" groans Cisco, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Kara, Kal-El, this is why I wanted you to wait. This is Nyssa Al-Ghul and Roy Harper. They're very protective of the rest of their team. Everything is fine, right?"

Nodding her head, slowly sheathing her arrow and putting her new emerald-green compound bow back on the table in its case, Nyssa moves to shake hands with Kara who looks at the hand before instead enveloping the former head of the League of Assassins in a full-on bearhug, an action which causes Roy Harper to snicker and Cisco Ramon's jaw to drop on the floor. It is at this moment, as Kara is still hugging Nyssa, that Barry Allen and Oliver Queen show up and their jaws drop as well.

"Ollie?"

"Yes, Barry?"

"Is that Nyssa Al-Ghul, the single scariest woman I've ever seen in my life, hugging someone and NOT putting a dagger in their heart?"

"It appears so, Barry."

"We're never going to mention we saw this ever, are we?"

"Smart words, Barry. Let's meet everyone."

And on cue, Oliver Queen and Barry Allen, the two exemplars of heroism, enter the room and introductions are made. Cisco Ramon takes one look at the suits of both Superman and Supergirl and howls in utter disappointment, refusing to understand why no one on their earth has even thought of doing something as relatively simple as making tech to keep up with their vital signs and the amount of solar radiation they're consuming.

Hearing that, Oliver and Barry gasp and enter the main area of the bunker.

"Superman, Supergirl, we have these family days for a very simple purpose. On days when crime in our cities is at a level where we can leave a few people behind to keep anyone big from getting any bright areas, we head over to a base like either this or the one we have at STAR Labs and we train. We consult each other on the villains we're facing, and we come up with new tech and equipment based on the problems we have to face" said Barry, taking the lead on this as he has met Supergirl before now and is confident she would trust him instead of the gruffer Green Arrow.

"Now, we're not saying this to denigrate you. Your powers are incredible. But, and this is why Barry asked you to come out here and join us, there are times when your powers have been deactivated. And whenever that's happened, you've always needed help to get done what you used to be able to get done on your own. So what this day is going to be for. You're going to learn everything we know, so that if your powers fade, you're not powerless. Cool?" said Oliver, a smile on his face.

Glancing at each other, Clark Kent and Kara Danvers can come up with only one word in response.

"Cool."

And with that, everyone gets to work. Cisco throws them both changes of clothes while he upgrades their suits with the proprietary bio-tech weaves that Team Flash and Team Arrow use, making alterations to include measurements for solar radiation and all the other things an alien might need to do their work. With their suits in the process of being upgraded, they get to work.

But before anything happens, Cisco Ramon blurts out a Spanish expletive to himself and remembers the OTHER thing they had to do. Rushing over to tell Oliver and Barry, Cisco then gets back to work.

"Now, look. We're teaching you everything WE know about heroism, about how to read a crime scene and a room. You'll learn how to fight enemies that won't tire, won't stop coming, and will be more skilled than you. But because almost none of us has powers down here, we'd very much like it if you didn't use yours while you were here. In that spirit, Cisco has studied you and created red sun lamps similar to those you would find on Krypton. While you're here, you're going to learn how to hit and BE hit like you would if you were home" growls Oliver, his intensity and depth of purpose returning to him.

Nodding their heads, understanding the purposes, the Super-Cousins get to work. Kara finds herself sparring with Nyssa and Roy, quickly finding her rudimentary boxing training rapidly overwhelmed by the sheer variety of techniques employed both by the former 2nd-in-command of the League of Assassins and her top student who also happens to be directly training under Oliver Queen. To say this wasn't going well would be an insult to the word.

Eventually, after Nyssa drilled Kara right in the jaw with a step-up knee and then Roy caught her with a trio of middle kicks to the ribs, Kara signaled for a timeout and grabbed a bottle of water. In between gasps of breath the Girl of Steel looks at her two sparring partners in open-mouthed shock.

"How did you get so good? And why is it so important to you to be THIS ready?" frowns Kara, clearly non-plussed both by the beating she's taken and the intensity of the combat up until now.

"We do this because, Ms. Danvers, we are not like you. We do not have the failsafe of invulnerability, or heat vision, or super strength. If we are not at the peak of our performance, and our skills, every time we leave this bunker, we will be hurt. There is a higher-than-normal chance we will die. We treasure this city, and every man, woman, and child in it. To ensure their safety, we must ensure our preparedness" says Nyssa, her perfectly clipped Eurasian accent piercing through Kara's defenses with every syllable.

"This isn't National City, Kara. It's not sunshine and light and bright open space here. Our villains, the people we have to stop, are monsters. They live in the darkness, and they rely on no one knowing of them. If we want to beat them, we have to be prepared for every eventuality, every trick of the game" says Roy kindly, playing the good cop to his teacher's bad cop.

"Ok. That I understand. Let's keep going. I heard there's a restaurant called a Big Belly Burger on this earth. After we're finished sparring, I want to get some food" grins Kara, her general air of sunshine back around her.

"Always with the Big Belly Burger, Mr. Harper. Just once I would love to have someone discover a Moroccan tagine, like the ones I enjoyed when I was a little girl" muttered Nyssa, who was then suddenly confronted by a thoroughly excited Kara Danvers.

"I have never heard of this tagine. Please tell me everything!" bubbles Kara, hugging Nyssa Al-Ghul in sheer excitement over having discovered something new to eat. Despite herself, Nyssa hugged her back. This, she supposed, was how this woman expressed thanks. And if it was, that was fine.

But what wasn't about to be fine was the fact that absolutely no one on Team Arrow, or Team Flash for that matter, thought to close the door to the bunker. It was an honest mistake, after all. The club was empty, so there was no worry about anyone seeing anything they weren't supposed to be. At least they all THOUGHT the club was empty.

In the exact moment Oliver Queen stood in the middle of the room, watching as Nyssa Al-Ghul walked Kara Danvers through how to perfectly shoot a bow-and-arrow while the bubbly blonde bounced back and forth in puppy-esque excitement, Thea Queen stood at the top of the stairs watching this whole bizarre tableau play out in front of her.

"Holy SHIT!" screamed Thea, drawing everyone's attention to her. "Is this what you've been doing every time you had to just leave me, or Mom?"

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Oliver Queen non-verbally tells everyone to get back to their business.

"Speedy. I always wanted to tell you. You and Mom, and Laurel, are the only people who remember anything about me who are still alive. But I could never find the words, or the way. I'm sorry you had to find out like this" groans Oliver, afraid she's going to leave the club, tell the police, and then leave his life forever.

"All those times you lied to me, told me some story about somewhere you had to be, was because you were saving someone's life, Ollie. I could never hate you for that. I could never blame you for wanting to keep me safe. I want to help you" sobs Thea, before running into her big brother's arms and hugging her tightly with all the love she can muster.

"Help me? Speedy, how would you help me?" states Oliver confusedly, still struggling to believe this is actually real. Someone from his family other than Laurel gets it? Someone else understands why? This is a dream, right? This has to be a dream.

"I will train her, Oliver" states Nyssa calmly, stunning the petite brunette into absolute silence. "Ms. Queen, my name is Nyssa Al-Ghul, Daughter of the Demon and the former leader of the League of Assassins. If you are willing to help your brother, as you say, I will make it my mission to make you as ready as I have made, or will make, everyone in this room. Make no mistake, Ms. Queen, this will not be easy. There will be days when you hate me, see me as your sworn enemy, but understand: I am preparing you for every outcome, every branch of every decision someone might make. Are you ok with this?"

Thinking for a minute, Thea Queen eventually comes up with the only answer she can.

"Yes. I am" she says confidently. And with that, Thea Queen joins Team Arrow.

A few hours later….

Thea Queen would admit to regretting her decision. Her entire body felt like one big bruise, while Kara Danvers was eating one tagine after another while going over all of her powers with a completely awestruck Cisco Ramon and Clark Kent was taking blood tests from Caitlin Snow.

And watching this all, happy as a clam, was Oliver Queen. Superman and Supergirl had reminded him of the joy that being a hero could be. It didn't, he supposed, have to be solemn and joyless. This could be fun, too.


End file.
